SLVYY Solvay SA (PK)

By Joshua Kirby

Solvay SA said Thursday that it expects higher free cash-flow for the year after confirming strong growth in earnings and sales in the third quarter and higher expected earnings for the year.

The Belgian chemicals company now expects FCF at some 1 billion euros ($987.4 million) in 2022, from a previous target of around EUR750 million. The company backed higher guidance of around 28% annual growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, set alongside preliminary third-quarter results published toward the end of last month.

Solvay confirmed the quarterly figures, which saw sales rise 30% on the year to EUR3.61 billion thanks to higher prices amid largely flat volumes, and underyling Ebitda rise 40% to EUR917 million thanks to pricing power that offset cost inflation. The Ebitda margin rose more than two percentage points to 25.4%, Solvay said.

Underyling net profit meanwhile nearly doubled to EUR509 million, Solvay said.

"I could not be more... excited about our bright future as we progress with our plan to separate into two independent, strong companies," Chief Executive Ilham Kadri said, referring to the plan set out earlier this year to break Solvay up into two separately listed companies by the middle of next year.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 03, 2022 02:14 ET (06:14 GMT)

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